According to the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova, the scandal over the attempted assassination of former Colonel GRU Sergei Skripal is nothing more than another attempt to smear Russia's image after a successful operation in Syria. "We need to somehow show the world that in fact, Russia is not a peacemaker, but is playing some kind of game of its own. Immediately there is a new round of anti-Russian campaign in the form of statements by the Prime Minister of Great Britain. This is the first track linking these two stories. The anti-Russian campaign is obvious. The second track - the notorious topic of chemical weapons, "- she said on the air of the TV channel" Russia-24 ". Zakharova stressed that Western countries are doing their best to "fool the public" and divert attention from pressing problems, from the war in Syria and Iraq. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in an interview with the television and radio company of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as his colleague paid special attention to Western propaganda, which becomes more and more "primitive and arrogant" day by day, as can be seen in the incident with the former GRU Colonel Sergei Skripal. "Everything is served in an extremely simplistic, coarse-propagandistic way. The processing of public opinion is underway, "Lavrov said.. The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regretfully added that the head of the man in the street "is hammered into simple chopped phrases without analysis". Relations between Russia and Britain worsened after Theresa May accused the Russian Federation of poisoning the former GRU officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter, saying that the responsibility for the event lies entirely with Russia. After the statement, the British prime minister warned Russia of the intention to freeze all bilateral contacts between the countries at a high level and threatened a number of measures against the Russian Federation, including the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats. Subsequently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation took retaliatory measures, declaring 23 British diplomats as persons of a non-grant, who will be expelled to their homeland within a week.